Here we are bracing for their coldest temperatures in decades today and the rest of this week with conditions predicted to feel like 50 degrees below zero or colder in areas of the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, . Temperatures in Chicago are also predicted to dip below negative 25 for the first time since the mid-1980s, AccuWeather says.

Health officials have warned residents to stay indoors as much as possible, since the brutal cold in just minutes. But what actually happens to your body in the frigid air? TIME asked Dr. Ronald Furnival, a pediatric emergency physician and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

“The blood vessels would start to contract and reduce blood flow” to areas including the face, ears, nose and fingers as a “defense mechanism” against extreme cold, Furnival says.

For most people, at least in the short-term, this adjustment is pretty harmless. But Furnival says people with preexisting heart conditions may be at risk of complications associated with these blood pressure changes, especially if they try to do strenuous outdoor activity like shoveling snow.

After a few minutes

In extreme cold, frostbite — or the freezing of skin and underlying tissues — can start to set in after just five to 15 minutes outside, Furnival says. The process can be especially quick if your skin is wet, or if you’re not properly covered up with hats, gloves and boots, in addition to warm clothing.

“Exposed extremities and digits and things can get frostbite fairly quickly,” Furnival says. “If there’s a strong wind and the weather’s pretty cold and the windchill is pretty low, then it goes a lot faster.” Risk of frostbite intensifies whenever the temperature drops below five degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Mayo Clinic, and becomes especially pronounced when cold and wind cause temperatures to fall below negative 16.6 degrees.

While mild to moderate frostbite can be reversed with warm water and blankets, severe frostbite can lead to permanent or long-lasting damage in the affected area. Signs of frostbite include a prickling feeling, followed by numbness and changes in the skin’s color and appearance. It may turn pale, red or blue, or take on a waxy look, according to the Mayo Clinic.

After 30 minutes

Furnival says signs of hypothermia, or a core body temperature that falls below 95 degrees, can surface after just 30 minutes to an hour in frigid temperatures.

“You start to have some decrease in your central temperature, so you can have some mild hypothermia to moderate hypothermia develop,” Furnival says. “People might start to feel confused and start to slur their words and start to have some neurologic changes. Some of the central core organs might be affected, so they might have problems with rapid heart rate and even worsening of the extremities, if blood flow is further reduced to those extremities.”

Furnival says individuals with preexisting medical conditions and children, who have less insulation, are at particular risk. But everybody, even otherwise healthy adults, should be aware of these dangers and take appropriate precautions, Furnival says.

“Cover up as well as you can with hats and gloves and mittens and boots and warm clothing, and then limit your exposure outside,” he recommends. “It’s okay to go outside, but you have to prepare for it, and you have to be coming in periodically to warm back up.”

some of the greatest ones are thosenever scribbled downor uttered/mumbled outon a voicemail to self. . .

M O N K E Y M I N Dorjust creative genius. . .

the only thing known for sureis if there’s meds for itI’ll refuse them. . .

It’s defined melonger than I’ve held a pencilor asked for notepads for Birthday presents. . .

THEY JUST COME:

O R

MY PLAN AINCLUDES THE POSSIBILITIESOF OTHER OPTIONS

O R

O R

. . .JUST WHICH THREADWOULD YOU UNRAVELFROM YOUR TAPESTRY

O R

THE UNKNOWING PARISHIONER

Though the winter windblows its snow freelylike a strike-at-midnightNew Year’s EveConfetti ParadeThe Church bell ringsnotIt’s candles remain unlitIt’s organmore silent than afingerless muteNo Word spokenheardor becoming fleshand yetthere’s a powerful sermon preachednot for the listeneror a waiting earbut for the interpretation of anopen heartand an unbowed headThe Altar may not beknelt beforeThe Communion only for a Servingfor Onefrom Another SacredHolyHallowedDeeper than a feelingCloser than a next drawn BreathMore needed than an unnoticed Heartbeat Grasped with fingers of faithand never completely explainedunderstoodIt’s a game only played by c h i l d r e nwhere the hiding and the seekingare the sameand when you’re t a g g e das you areYou knowAre sureYou Are IT(written quickly with a cold hand on rumbled piece of legal pad while taking a break from shoveling snow after a recent snow storm that canceled church services)

IN PASSING

If Death is a roller coaster rideforgive me for not standing in linewaiting to get onI’m begging for a dying man’s pardonfor not paying Admission To THATnot-so-Amusing-ParkIf Deathis sitting sea sidegentle breezewarm sunfamily nearby splashing in the surfmy favorite playlistglass of bourbonover-sized ice cube bobbingcuban cigarbook in handwith others by my sidepeeking out of an undersized satchel By all Meansmove me to the front of the linePressR E P E A TrepeatedlyLet meLive my Deathwhatever’s past the largest number TIMESthe next largest number(Written shortly after walking out of patient’s room who had just died with her husband, son and brother at her bedside REMEMBERING unceasingly between sobs as I facilitated life/faith/family review an intentionally picked open the abscess of grief)

The real question for me:

I have never consciously chosen to write a single WordSentenceLineParagraphPagePoemNovelthat hasn’t bled itself out of meno matter how tight the tourniquet. . .

People Who Cry During Movies Are The Strongest People Of All

I have to write this blog post

if for nothing else,

pure vindication. . .

During our entire life, we are being discouraged to freely express our emotions, and we are being told that crying is a sign of weakness and a reason for shame. Yet, crying is our body’s natural way to respond to strong pain, sadness, and joy. . .

G O O G L E A W A Y

Go ahead

. . .I’ll wait

there’s some real evidence based data here

Over time, we learn to swallow the tears and express ourselves in a more suitable manner. But some people seem to be unable to hold back their tears when at the cinema or in a theatre, and they are often considered to be emotionally weak.

H o w e v e r, we are here to break these stereotypes, as these people are apparently much stronger than we believe. Namely, they are highly empathic and tend to identify with other people, trying to understand their feelings and motivations. . .

Pass the tissues. . .or a towel

Empathy is a crucial aspect of emotional intelligence, and this ability is prominent among great leaders and highly successful individuals. These people are mentally tough and know how to relate to others and share their pain, grief, or happiness. Moreover, they are more generous and sociable.

Nothing like finding stats to back you upaffirm you, huh. . .

When we step into a character’s shoes and envision a different reality, we develop into more open-minded and understanding individuals, and we become increasingly compassionate in our interactions with others.

We’ve sweetened the deal a little. . .

Taken some of the saltiness out of the tears;

WE ARE NOT CRYBABIES

WE ARE

EMPATHSwhich only use to be chiefly in science fictiondescribing a person with the paranormal ability to apprehendthe mental or emotional state ofanother individual

but

it’s really just the mere capacity to understand or feel what another personis experiencing from their point of view. . .

It’s the capacity to put yourself in another’s shoes and actually walk in them

FEEL WHAT IT’S LIKE

Let’s remember Roger Ebert’s words of wisdom:

“We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds, not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it.”

Therefore, next time you feel like crying or see someone crying while watching a movie, take these things in mind and stop judging. Also, if you feel emotional too, do not hold back the waterworks, but feel free to shed a tear instead. . .

Mary Oliver, beloved poet and bard of the natural world, died on January 17 at home in Hobe Sound, Florida. She was 83.

Oliver published her first book, No Voyage, in London in 1963, at the age of twenty-eight. The author of more than 20 collections, she was cherished by readers, and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive, and the 1992 National Book Award for New and Selected Poems, Volume One. She led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Bennington College, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching until 2001. It was her work as an educator that encouraged her to write the guide to verse, A Poetry Handbook (1994), and she went on to publish many works of prose, including the New York Times bestselling essay collection, Upstream (2016). For her final work, Oliver created a personal lifetime collection, selecting poems from throughout her more than fifty-year career. Devotions was published by Penguin Press in 2017.

Her poetry developed in close communion with the landscapes she knew best, the rivers and creeks of her native Ohio, and, after 1964, the ponds, beech forests, and coastline of her chosen hometown, Provincetown. She spent her final years in Florida, a relocation that brought with it the appearance of mangroves. “I could not be a poet without the natural world,” she wrote. “Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.” In the words of the late Lucille Clifton, “She uses the natural world to illuminate the whole world.”In her attention to the smallest of creatures, and the most fleeting of moments, Oliver’s work reveals the human experience at its most expansive and eternal. She lived poetry as a faith and her singular, clear-eyed understanding of verse’s vitality of purpose began in childhood, and continued all her life. “For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”

When Death Comes

When death comeslike the hungry bear in autumn;when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;when death comeslike the measle-pox;

when death comeslike an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everythingas a brotherhood and a sisterhood,and I look upon time as no more than an idea,and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as commonas a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and somethingprecious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my lifeI was a bride married to amazement.I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular, and real.I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,or full of argument I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

A Mary Oliver bookis by my bed, in my study,in the trunk of my car,a back packan unpacked bag from my last vacation. . .

she’s always been a go-tofor quick bits of inspirationand now that words will no longer flow from her penthey will continue to float to one lucky personto another blessed onewho treats themselves to peruse. . .Maybe the greatest poetic justiceof all is not feeling the need to say GOOD-BYEso much assincerelyeverlastinglywhispernot-so-softlyTHANKYOUu n l i m i t e d l y

If you’re waiting for brilliance to strike, try getting bored first. That’s the takeaway of a study published recently in the journal Academy of Management Discoveries, which found that boredom can spark individual productivity and creativity.

Those findings are likely no surprise to Sandi Mann, a senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. Mann is the author of The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom Is Good, and a proponent of embracing the emotion, negative connotations and all.

Here’s why being bored can be a good thing for your mind, imagination and productivity, and how to do it right

Boredom sparks creativity

At its core, boredom is “a search for neural stimulation that isn’t satisfied,” Mann says. “If we can’t find that, our mind will create it.” As demonstrated by the new study and plenty others before it, boredom can enable creativity and problem-solving by allowing the mind to wander and daydream.“There’s no other way of getting that stimulation, so you have to go into your head,” Mann says. You may be surprised by what you come up with when you do

Boredom is good for your mental health

Daydreaming can be “quite a respite” and provide a brief escape from day-to-day life, Mann says. But it’s also beneficial to simply step away from screens, work and other stressors long enough to feel bored. Studies have shown, for example, that modern tools including work emails, social media and dating apps can strain mental health — so taking a break can be a valuable opportunity to recharge.

How to be bored the right way

Mann says it’s important not to conflate boredom with relaxation. A purposefully tranquil activity, such as yoga or meditation, likely doesn’t meet the definition of trying and failing to find stimulation.

It’s also crucial to unplug during this time, Mann says. Our cultural attachment to our phones, she says, is paradoxically both destroying our ability to be bored, and preventing us from ever being truly entertained.

“We’re trying to swipe and scroll the boredom away, but in doing that, we’re actually making ourselves more prone to boredom, because every time we get our phone out we’re not allowing our mind to wander and to solve our own boredom problems,” Mann says, adding that people can become addicted to the constant dopamine hit of new and novel content that phones provide. “Our tolerance for boredom just changes completely, and we need more and more to stop being bored.”

Next time you find yourself in line at the grocery store, in a tedious meeting or killing time in a waiting room, resist the urge to scroll. You’re bound to get bored — and your brain, mood and work performance just might improve. . .

I’m not much of a goal setteror a goal getterso much as D O ‘ E R. . .

Why waste a sheet of paper writing downand checking it twicewhen you can imagine itC R E A T Emake it happen on the fly

IF. . .IF. . .IF. . .IF. . .IF. . .IF. . .IF. IF. . .IF. . .

YOU WILL ACTUALLY DO IT. . .

P R E S E N C E

has served me wellso well I could/should have a RE-DOand probably could ride it out for the rest of decadeand past

B U T

I thought reaching for a new W O R Dlike I do each year would not only help me. . .but also those I attempt to serve;

H E N C E

the new word for 2 0 1 9in a w o r d :

L I S T E N

Y U PMy word of the year is l i s t e n. . .

It’s one of those words whose meaning is in its music. Listen is a quiet word, that half swallowed L and diffident I and softly hissing S. . .It defies the clamorous words it absorbs, the words that have defined this year, the shouts and roars, the bray and bluster. . .Listening is hard when the sounds around us grow mean and ugly.

And listening takes particular courage in divisive times.

“Courage is not just about standing up for what you believe,” Doug Elmendorf tells his students at Harvard. “Sometimes courage is about sitting down and listening to what you may not initially believe.”

Which is not to say that if we all just listened more, our wounds would heal our conflicts endour lives would actually change on an inner and outer level. . .Nor does it mean abandoning our values; it’s a strategic reminder of the value of humility. “It’s always wise to seek the truth in our opponents’ error, and the error in our own truth,” theologian Reinhold Niebuhr said. Listening, closely and bravely, to an opposing view deepens our insight and sharpens our arguments—especially in our public life.

How many New Year’s resolutions have you made in your life? How many have you successfully accomplished? The estimate is that less than 10% of New Year’s resolutions are actually achieved (University of Scranton Psychology Professor John C. Norcross, Ph.D.). There’s a lot of homespun folksy advice out there this time of year about how to make sure you reach your New Year’s goals, but I thought I’d share the actual science of how to change behavior.

There’s two main lines of brain and behavior science that influence New Year’s resolutions: The science of habits and the science of self-stories.

Let’s start with the science of habits.

A lot of New Year’s resolutions have to do with making new habits or changing existing ones. If your resolutions are around things like eating healthier, exercising more, drinkingless, quitting smoking, texting less, spending more time “unplugged” or any number of other “automatic” behaviors then we are talking about changing existing habits or making new habits. Habits are automatic, “conditioned” responses. You get up in the morning and stop at Starbucks for a pastry and a latte. You go home at the end of work and plop down in front of the TV. Here’s what you need to know about the science of changing existing habits or making new ones:

Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not hard to change habits IF you do so based on science.

To change a new habit you essentially have to create a new one, so whether you are changing an existing habit or creating a new one, the “scientific” method for doing so is the same.

You have already created literally HUNDREDS of habits that you have now, and you don’t even remember how they got started, so creating habits can’t be that hard or you wouldn’t have so many of them!

To create a new habit you have to follow these three steps (based on B.J. Fogg and Charles Duhigg)

You MUST pick a small action. “Get more exercise” is not small. “Eat healthier” is not small. This is a big reason why New Year’s resolutions don’t work. If it’s a habit and you want a new one it MUST be something really small. For example, instead of “Get more exercise” choose “Walk 1/3 more than I usually do” or “Take the stairs each morning to get to my office, not the elevator”, or “Have a smoothie every morning with kale in it”. These are relatively small actions.

You MUST attach the new action to a previous habit. Figure out a habit you already have that is well established, for example, if you already go for a brisk walk 3 times a week, then adding on 10 more minutes to the existing walk connects the new habit to an existing one. The existing habit “Go for walk” now becomes the “cue” for the new habit: “Walk 10 more minutes.” Your new “stimulus-response” is Go For Walk (Stimulus) followed by “Add 10 minutes.” Your existing habit of “walk through door at office” can now become the “cue” or stimulus for the new habit of “walk up a flight of stairs.” Your existing habit of “Walk into the kitchen in the morning” can now be the stimulus for the new habit of “Make a kale smoothie.”

You MUST make the new action EASY to do for at least the first week. Because you are trying to establish a conditioned response, you need to practice the new habit from the existing stimulus from 3 to 7 times before it will “stick” on its own. To help you through this 3 to 7 times phase make it as EASY as possible. Write a note and stick it in your walking shoe that says “Total time today for walk is 30 minutes”. Write a note and put it where you put your keys that says: “Today use the stairs.” Put the kale in the blender and have all your smoothie ingredients ready to go in one spot in the refrigerator

E A S Y ?

If you take these three steps and you practice them 3 to 7 days in a row your new habit will be established.

Now let’s tackle the science of self-stories

The best (and some would say the only) way to get a large and long-term behavior change, is by changing your self-story.

Everyone has stories about themselves that drive their behavior. You have an idea of who you are and what’s important to you. Essentially you have a “story” operating about yourself at all times. These self-stories have a powerful influence on decisions and actions.

Whether you realize it or not, you make decisions based on staying true to your self-stories. Most of this decision-making based on self-stories happens unconsciously. You strive to be consistent. You want to make decisions that match your idea of who you are. When you make a decision or act in a way that fits your self-story, the decision or action will feel right. When you make a decision or act in a way that doesn’t fit your self-story you feel uncomfortable.

If you want to change your behavior and make the change stick, then you need to first change the underlying self-story that is operating. Do you want to be more optimistic? Then you’d better have an operating self-story that says you are an optimistic person. Want to join your local community band? Then you’ll need a self-story where you are outgoing and musical.

In his book, Redirect, Timothy Wilson describes a large body of impressive research of how stories can change behavior long-term. One technique he has researched is “story-editing”:

Write out your existing story. Pay special attention to anything about the story that goes AGAINST the new resolution you want to adopt. So if your goal is to learn how to unplug and be less stressed, then write out a story that is realistic, that shows that it’s hard for you to de-stress, that you tend to get overly involved in dramas at home or at work.

Now re-write the story — create a new self-story. Tell the story of the new way of being. Tell the story of the person who appreciates life, and takes time to take care of him/her-self.

The technique of story-editing is so simple that it doesn’t seem possible that it can result in such deep and profound change. But the research shows that one re-written self-story can make all the difference.

I’ve tried both of these techniques — creating new habits using the 3-step method, and creating a new self-story. The research shows they work, and my own experience shows they work.

Give it a try. What have you got to lose? This year use science to create and stick to your New Year’s resolutions.

What do you think? What has worked for you in keeping your resolutions?

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My name is Chuck Behrens, serving others to help others serve. I value your time and take your readership seriously. Follow along and together lets become Expert Members of Triple A: Accessible. Accountable. Available.